Why Plastic Cutting Boards Beat Wood for Commercial Kitchens

There’s no shortage of opinion when it comes to plastic vs wooden cutting boards. However, any commercial kitchen will tend to find that plastic is the way to go, and here are just a few reasons why.

Easily Color-Coded

Perhaps the most important benefit of plastic cutting boards is that they can be made in a huge array of different colours. In contrast, wood can only be stained in slightly different shades – you obviously can’t paint a cutting board. This means that plastic cutting boards can be colour-coded very easily, and that’s vital for commercial kitchens. With cutting boards colour-coded, you’ll find it much easier to avoid cross contamination.

Lower Cost

Wooden cutting boards are seen as a more luxurious option than plastic ones; unfortunately, luxury means money. You can buy a good quality plastic cutting board for a fraction of the price of a wooden one. That’s not a big deal for residential kitchens since they typically only require one or two cutting boards. A commercial kitchen requires far more, so the cost difference between plastic and wood can really start to add up.

Perfect Toughness

The best plastic cutting boards are made using pressed polyethylene. It’s very tough, and yet it’s soft enough to avoid dulling any knife blades. You can cut on one all day without worrying about losing the edge.

Light and Thin

Some people like the weight and thickness of a wooden cutting board. The problem is that such weight and thickness isn’t ideal in a commercial kitchen. People will be carrying food around all day, so you really want all your cooking accessories to be as light as possible. As such, plastic beats wood. Additionally, thinner profile of a plastic cutting board makes them a lot easier to stack and store.